Thursday, January 26, 2012

You may have read in the daily paper this morning that the lottery ticket being fought over in Circuit Court in Searcy was cast away because a scanner read the $1 million winner as a loser.

Now comes the Arkansas Lottery's interim director to say the scanners "are performing like clockwork." According to Julie Baldridge, "The ticket in question was scanned at the original retailer and at several other scanners in various locations, and each time it scanned properly." I called Baldridge to see why the testimony at trial was at odds with the lottery's findings, but wasn't able to reach her.

The case, being heard by Circuit Judge Thomas Hughes, hasn't wrapped up. Lawyers did not complete arguing their case today, and it will be continued to another time, the court clerk said.

Baldridge's letter is on the jump.

LOTTERY TICKET SCANNERS PERFORM LIKE CLOCKWORK

Little Rock (January 26, 2012) — Lottery ticket scanners are the little electronic machines sitting on the counter at more than 1,800 Arkansas Lottery Commission retailers all over the state. They “read” the bar codes on each ticket and their screens flash a message to you that says, “WINNER! FILE CLAIM FORM” or “SORRY NOT A WINNER” or other messages.

The Arkansas Lottery Commission is happy to confirm that these machines have been doing their job with no issues since the first tickets were sold on September 29, 2009.

It was reported today by various media that a Lottery scanner in Beebe had not functioned properly for a $1 Million winning ticket, according to one witness in a Searcy civil trial. In response to that testimony, the Lottery wants to assure our players and all Arkansans that in that case—and in quality-assurance testing conducted regularly and thoroughly—our ticket scanners have passed the test.

Here are the facts on the Beebe ticket:Players at that Beebe retailer scanned tickets numerous times on the day the $1 Million ticket was sold, and each time the scanner worked perfectly;The ticket in question was scanned at the original retailer and at several other scanners in various locations, and each time it scanned properly.

In short, the Arkansas Lottery’s ticket scanners are performing like clockwork.

Though no identification has been made, human remains found in the West Little Rock park where Ebby Steppach's car was located in 2015 could belong to the missing teenager.

The Department of Correction reported Sunday the deaths of an inmate at Brickeys, the East Arkansas Regional unit of the Department of Correction, and an inmate at the Varner unit in Grady, both in single-man cells, within 12 hours of one another.

Hillary Clinton's campaign for president illustrates again the double standard applied to women. Some writers get it. They even find the supposedly unlikable Clinton inspiring.

With a pivotal ruling expected any day now from the Public Service Commission, Kyle Massey at Arkansas Business reports on the increase in Arkansans adding solar generation units on their homes and business.

UAMS, pressed by financial problems for several years, told the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees today that it had a $1.5 billion operating budget that doesn't call for deficit spending.

Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Bart Virden of Morrilton, who narrowly survived attack ads by an outside partisan group supporting his opponent for re-election to a nonpartisan seat, doesn't intend to let the matter drop.

Do what Donald Trump says or leave the country. Is that the embodiment of the 1st Amendment or what?

KARK/Fox 16 reports that Little Rock police have identified skeletal remains found Tuesday in a west Little Rock park as those of Ebby Steppach, the 17-year-old who's been missing since her car was found in that park abandoned in 2015.

Enjoy these photos from today's dedication and re-installation of a new Ten Commandments monument. The first iteration of the monument was installed last June but destroyed within the next 24 hours when it was rammed by a man in a Dodge Dart.